1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power source control apparatus, a heating apparatus, a fixing apparatus, an image forming apparatus, a power source control method, and a power source control program, and more particularly to such a power source control apparatus, a heating apparatus, a fixing apparatus, an image forming apparatus, a power source control method, and a power source control program, in which a heating member heated by capacitor charged power is provided.
2. Description of the Related Art
A heating member (fixing heater) in a fixing apparatus used for an image forming apparatus, such as an electrophotographic type image forming apparatus preferably requires a rapid supply of electric power. In addition to a power supply from a commercial power source, a chargeable subsidiary power source using an electric double layer condenser, for example, is applied to a heating member of a fixing apparatus used for an electrophotographic type image forming apparatus, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos. 2000-315567, 2002-357966, and 2003-140484, for providing a technology enabling rapid build up and enhancing energy saving ability.
Some electrophotographic type image forming apparatuses and other electronic apparatuses get into an energy saving mode when they have been not used for a certain period. In the energy saving mode, power supplies are limited to only the minimum circuits to save power and energy, as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2002-304088.
In the electrophotographic type image forming apparatuses in the above-described documents, a rechargeable subsidiary power source employing a capacitor is used to rapidly raise the temperature of the fixing apparatus. However, when the subsidiary power source is needed to rapidly raise the temperature of the fixing apparatus, its capacitor, if under low power charged situation, cannot rapidly raise the temperature of the fixing apparatus. Then, when the charged power of the capacitor becomes lower than a predetermined value, it is needed for a predetermined control apparatus to control a charger so as to charge the capacitor.
However, in the above mentioned image forming apparatuses, a control device (such as a microcomputer) for controlling the charging of the capacitor is also not supplied with power, and therefore the capacitor cannot be charged during the energy saving mode.
Under this situation, when the capacitor's charged amount is not enough just before shifting to the energy saving mode, or after the energy saving mode lasts too long so as to naturally discharge the capacitor, the capacitor not having enough charged power cannot rapidly raise the fixing temperature of the fixing apparatus.
In prior image forming apparatuses having such an energy saving mode, in a case where the capacitor charged power becomes low enough, the energy saving mode is at once terminated and the apparatus is shifted to the normal mode (image forming mode) to charge the capacitor, and then is returned to the energy saving mode.
However, due to the termination of the energy saving mode for charging purpose, unnecessary power (for example, initial settings such as scanner calibration, etc.) not relating to charging is consumed.